Islamist extremist group has capitalised on instability to control a swath of the region
The scene is wearily familiar. It is dusk at a ramshackle military outpost, surrounded by miles of scrubby desert or on the outskirts of a major town.
Suddenly, there is the sound of automatic rifle fire, and hundreds of men arriving on motorbikes, then explosions, screams, fire, smoke. The defenders flee or are killed. The attackers shout triumphant cries of “God is Greatest”.
A few days later comes an edited video clip of the successful attack and a claim of responsibility from the Jama’at Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin, or JNIM, an Islamist extremist group which now controls a swath of the Sahel, which stretches across Africa from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean and marks the borderlands between the Sahara and less arid zones.
The series of bombings, hijackings, attacks on military bases and raids into major towns in Mali and Burkina Faso carried out by JNIM in recent weeks have gone largely unnoticed in a world preoccupied by conflicts elsewhere, but marks one of the most significant military efforts by any Islamic militant organisation anywhere in the world since the Taliban stormed back to power in Afghanistan in 2021.
